Many organisations are now equipped to receive messages, including orders and enquiries, by electronic means. Typically, such electronic messages take the form of text-based messages, for example e-mails, delivered by a global computer network, for example the Internet, or by a telecommunications network, for example a mobile telephone network. Each message must be processed and dealt with appropriately i.e. according to the nature of the message. In many cases, the volume of received electronic messages is relatively high and it is considered inefficient to process each message manually.
For this reason, it is known for electronic message processing systems, typically in the form of a computer system, to employ a text analyzer, such as IBM's Mail Analyzer, to analyse the content of electronic messages in order to classify, or categorize, each message according to its content. Once a message has been categorized, the processing system sends it on to a human agent who has the capability to deal with messages falling within the relevant category(s). Alternatively, the computer system itself may be able to deal with messages falling within certain category(s). Hence, the classification information is used as routing information since the category(s) into which the message falls determine how it is routed, or distributed, within the system.
Typically, a text analyzer examines the text of each message in turn in search of one or more alphanumeric text string, for example a word or sequence of words, which may be used to identify the purpose or nature of the message under examination. Normally the text analyzer operates in association with a rule engine to apply a set of rules to the message in order to determine how to categorize the current message.
By way of simplistic example, a banking organisation may have a message processing system arranged to receive electronic messages in three different categories, namely: balance enquiry; request for funds transfer; and interest rate enquiry. In order to categorize each received message, a text analyzer in association with a rule engine applies a set of four rules to each message in turn. The first rule stipulates that if the text string “balance” appears in the message, then the message falls in the balance enquiry category. The second rule stipulates that if the text strings “funds” and “transfer” appear in the message, then the message falls in the funds transfer category. The third rule stipulates that if the message contains the text string “interest rate”, then the message should be categorized as an interest rate enquiry. The fourth rule stipulates that if none of the previous rules are satisfied, then the message is deemed unclassified.
The classification of a message by a text analyzer is a relatively computationally intensive process and represents a relatively large proportion of the time taken by an electronic message processing system to process a message. The text analyzing may therefore cause a bottleneck in the operation of the message processing system.
It is desirable therefore to avoid having to subject a message to the operation of the text analyzer, if possible. For example, a customer may send a message to an organisation using a standardised electronic message submission form, such as a Web-form, that is dedicated to making a particular type of order or request e.g., a request for a funds transfer. The purpose of such a standardised message (which is sometimes known as a structured message) may be deduced from its structure. It is known for a conventional message processing system to determine the category of a received structured message by recognising the structure rather than analyzing the text of the message itself.
In the context of the present invention, it is recognised that there are other circumstances in which the category, or categories, to which a received message falls are known and that, in such circumstances, the message does not need to be subjected to text analysis. In particular, it is recognized that in some situations an electronic message, which has been received and classified by the mail processing system, may require to be sent out of the mail processing system and to return to the system at a later time. Conventionally, the message processing system treats the returning message like any other incoming message and sends it to the text analyzer for classification. This is a duplication of classification since the original message will already have been classified before having been sent out of the system.